Betty Chinn remembers a time when she was a 7-year-old girl, homeless in China, living in a garbage dump.

"From sunrise to dawn, I hoped for someone to bring me a bowl of rice and some water to drink," Chinn said Saturday from behind a podium at the grand opening of her Betty Kwan Chinn Day Center. "It never happened in four years."

Saturday -- decades after Chinn fled the Cultural Revolution to start a new life in the United States -- she and some of Humboldt County's most prominent citizens gathered together to celebrate the opening of a center they hope will break the cycle of homelessness for many in the community, giving them not just a warm meal but the tools and services they need to better their lives and stand on their own feet.

"This center is not for all the homeless," Chinn said one day last week. "This is for the ones who are ready to change."

Opened in collaboration with Catholic Charities, the new day center will offer onsite case management and mental health services, employment training, life-skills workshops, a computer lab and a children's center when it opens its doors to the public on Nov. 18. Standing behind a lectern at the center's front door, Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation board president Dan Price said the center has truly been a community effort, rattling off a list of more than a dozen local businesses and individuals who have donated the time, money and supplies needed to turn an old blighted building into the brand new center.

While an increasing sense of lawlessness and chaos in the world can make hearts grow cold, Price pointed to Chinn as a a beacon of light -- someone who has faced that chaos with a love, kindness and devotion manifested in practical solutions like the gifts of a hot meal or a warm coat -- that has touched the hearts of an entire community.

"I think that's evidence there's hope," Price said, adding that Chinn has helped a community see the world through empathetic eyes, understanding that "there but for the grace of God, it could be me -- homeless, hopeless, loveless."

Many in attendance Saturday talked about Chinn's ability to bring people together across political divides for a common purpose. North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman marveled at the fact that Chinn counts among her friends some of Humboldt County's most destitute people and the president of the United States.

"That's a heck of a Rolodex she has," Huffman said.

Lisa Bethune, who sits on Chinn's board and has acted as her proverbial right hand for years, marveled at how far Chinn has come, transforming from a shy woman content to do her outreach work in the shadows into a proud force uniting a diverse group around a common goal.

"She's just blossomed," Bethune said. "This whole building is a testament to how amazingly well Betty builds community."

Purchased by Catholic Charities with $500,000 donated by Fortuna native and Santa Rosa businessman Henry Trione, the day center building was extensively renovated by a team led by local developer Kurt Kramer, who sits on Chinn's board and donated his services to the project.

Former Eureka City Manager David Tyson, who is the treasurer for Chinn's foundation, said the center will be run almost entirely with money raised through local donations and grants. Tyson said the foundation's budget for the first year is about $220,000, part of which is contracted to go to Catholic Charities to pay for the center's two paid employees, as well as administrative support and grant writing services.

Standing in the lobby of the newly refurbished center, Catholic Charities Executive Director Chuck Fernandez said the community has really come together to make the center possible -- donating time, paint, services, computers and so much more. Now, he said, it's the center's job to validate and honor that community faith by helping the homeless toward successful outcomes.